About us
Center for a Better South: a pragmatic, nonpartisan think tank dedicated to developing progressive ideas, policies and information for thinking leaders who want to make a difference in the American South.
- Watch a video now about the Center.
The Center, a non-profit, non-partisan tax-exempt organization, has been crafted in the spirit of the LQC Lamar Society, which was started in 1969 by “men and women who believed the South could achieve practical solutions to its problems, regardless of whether these men were liberal or conservative, white or black, Democrat or Republican, establishment or student.”
Among the founders were newspaper publisher H. Brandt Ayers, former Sen. Terry Sanford and former Gov. William Winter. The group’s formation led to the formation of the Southern Growth Policies Board and a book of essays, You Can’t Eat Magnolias, both in 1971.
Annual output
- Major issues: The Center for a Better South annually seeks to issue a book of policy ideas on a major issue to help Southern policymakers grapple with them.
- 2006: Doing Better: Progressive Tax Reform for the American South
- 2007: Getting Greener: Progressive Environmental Ideas for the American South.
- 2008: The Center started work on a book of ideas of ways to improve elections and participation in the electoral process.
- 2009: The Center held a conference to develop an Agenda for a Better South.
- 2010: The Center is promoting the Agenda and planning another conference. It launched the BetterGulf.org photo blog and developed “Ideas for a Better Gulf,” a series of big ideas on Gulf restoration following the April oil disaster.
- The Center for a Better South’s SouthPoll: The Center has plans for an annual survey of attitudes of Southerners will highlight regional and progressive trends.
- Commentaries: The Center’s Fellows also produces periodic op-ed commentaries on issues of public importance in Southern newspapers and regional magazines to attempt to move debates forward.
